A while ago, I did a ‘Notable Nosh’ post featuring a particular pickled-herring preparation known as Rollmops. At that time, I mentioned that I would be interested to see how the pickled fish would work in Sushi. Originally, I thought in terms of a ‘Nigiri’ style sushi but, instead, I went another way…

There is a Japanese preparation consisting of very lightly pickled Mackerel that I just love and often have as a sashimi selection. Whole fillets are sometimes pressed with large blocks of rice to make a specific sort of sushi and I thought that Rollmops, though not nearly as delicate in flavor, would work nicely. An added incentive to trying this dish was that it gave me an opportunity to use my ‘Maki Sushi Ki’ mold…

There is no ingredient list here today since I all I used was some pre-pared sushi rice (made using my Quick Sushi Rice method), a couple of Rollmop pickles, and a thin slice of lemon for garnish.

Here are the Rollmops… Well, one Rollmop and one Un-Rollmop, actually. I figured two would be needed given the size of my sushi mold. I didn’t need the pickled gherkins from the middle of the rolls and I ate them just after snapping this picture.

The Rollmops absorb a lot of pickling liquid in their jars and so I pressed my trimmed pieces between two boards, using a little weight to really squeeze them. My aim here was to prevent the sushi rice from getting way too soggy.

I filled my sushi mold about 2/3 full of rice. In the background you can see my trimmed fillets. The leftover pieces below and to the right went the same way as the gherkins.

The fillets went on top of the rice and, after taking this picture, I folded the plastic wrap over top before inserting the ‘pressing bar’

I pressed the block for a whole afternoon while doing other tasks. One of the good things about this type of sushi is that, along as you keep it tightly wrapped, you can put it in the refrigerator to slice later. Naturally, this allows you to do a lot of work ahead of actually serving.

Here is the block unwrapped and ready for slicing. The mold did a very nice job, I think…

The Verdict

Instead of soy and wasabi, I served my sushi slices with a very light sauce made with mirin, and a little splash each of lemon juice and soy. Overall, the effect was pretty good. The rice was just slightly overcooked on this occasion (I got distracted) but still okay. Surprisingly, the fish was not nearly as assertive as I was expecting and I think expelling a lot of the pickling juice had that effect. In consequence, the taste was much closer to Japanese pickled Mackerel than I anticipated. Next time, I may try a little wasabi on the fillets before assembling the blocks…